An Alaskan journalist's perspective on local and national issues

Posts tagged ‘Founding Fathers’

When one looks at history, and how far the human race has come from the days when the problems of daily living, such as plowing a field and raising crops, and then one looks at where humanity is now, with our technological world that has connected every corner of this vast sphere, it is easy to see how this generation of youth is now the total amalgamation of human progress, the full footprint of our species.

The bulk of all innovation through the 20th Century was driven by humanity’s urge to make the tedious tasks of everyday living easier. When electricity was able to be harnessed, the world grew. The combustion engine made getting around the world no longer a long and laborious task, but now something that can be done within a day. Bigger, more powerful engines, along with certain kinds of fuel, allowed the human race to be able to reach past the heavens. It guided the hand of the human race to touch the very stars, and to begin to realize just how much there was that we do not understand.

With the endless expansive growth of technology, there has been a new growth in understanding of the entire universe, and just how small the human race actually is in direct comparison to all the things that exist in the universe. Truly, when one thinks about just how large the universe is, the idea of our species each having a special place to exist in it is truly misguided. In direct comparison to the universe, humanity doesn’t take up the most basic of percentage of space. And now that science and technology has allowed us to escape the basic tedium of everyday life, humanity is starting to grow as a species, looking into the realm of the philosopher, the academic, the scientist. We are beginning to become more than any previous generation ever believed we could be.

If the Founding Fathers of this nation could see where our species is now. The globally connected market which, while it has some severe problems right now that need a lot of work, is a truly marvelous innovation. The United States’ effort to stay out of global affairs during WWI and WWII are now made impossible by this global connection. Of course, like any system, it is a double-edged sword. Still, the founders would never have been able to see where our species is. This is one of the reasons that when people say things like Jesse Ventura said, about how the Constitution should be “written in stone,” they are missing the point that Joe Pesci made in With Honors.

Our “founding parents” were pompous, white, middle-aged farmers, but they were also great men. Because they knew one thing that all great men should know: that they didn’t know everything. Sure, they’d make mistakes, but they made sure to leave a way to correct them.”

The fact is that those who created this nation did realize that the Constitution needed to be looked at with a grain of salt, and people needed to be more open-minded. That said, this country is dominated by the idea that those who started it knew exactly the truth about everything, and that the Constitution is a spectacularly perfect document.

But back to the idea of how far our species has come, there is one thing that has truly made this generation the symbol for all future generations – the internet. Never before has a system of knowledge been given to us like the internet. This has connected the entire world in a way that nobody of previous generations could have believed.

It used to be that a person could actuall obtain all the knowledge of the world that they lived in. During the times of cavemen, the caveman or woman could learn about their whole world. They knew about all the activities they had to do to live, and that was all. All the knowledge that they were capable of having was there for them. But now, the very idea that a person can achieve the level of knowledge that is even a fraction of a percentage of what our entire culture, which is now a global culture, has. Another thing that internet has done is it has created a world without barriers. There is no nation online. There is no seperation of barriers there. It is a place that is an open market for all people. Truly, the world of the Federation has already been discovered. In a recent video that Anonymous put out, they talked about this very concept.

Anonymous is simply ideas without origin. May it be a phrase, a fad, a proverb, the concept of Anonymous has always existed.”

There has never, at any point in human history, been a connected world like this one. Never has there been a vast labyrinth of interconnectedness that has made the suffering and prosperity come into focus like this generation has.

With the world changing so quickly these days, it is almost a little difficult to comprehend how something like religion, that has more or less been unchanged for the last 2,000 years, been able to continue. When things that are only a few years old are now considered obsolete, how can something that has completely unchanging doctrine continue? How can something that has been this same organization since the Dark Ages hardly change at all? Truly, there almost seems to be an effort to this point. Religion has always been deemed by the powerful as useful.

But regardless of issues like that, the fact is that this time, this day and age, is the greatest era of all the days of humanity. The truly wonderful thing is that it is only beginning! The sun is still just rising on the human race! Who knows where we will be in 50 or 100 years. It is almost impossible to wrap one’s mind around the fact that 100 years from now, the interconnectedness that we enjoy now may be viewed as a relic.

Science and technology are evolving at a more rapid rate now than at any other time in history. It is an incredible time to be alive. Those who are living with the inventions of this day and age sometimes forget that 100 years ago, or even 30 years ago, this was all the dreams of people who worked in basements. But the internet has changed everything, for better and for always. Facebook gave the human race a place to gather. As Sean Parker said in The Social Network –

We lived on farms, then we lived in cities, and now we’re going to live on the internet!”

This creation that so many people take for granted, is the one thing that has made an entire generation the full footprint of the human race. That is our generation. Our time, is the culmination of all time, and that, I think, it an incredible thing.

Okay, after seeing some of the statements by people like Ron Paul, and listening to various libertarian elements, I have one question that I would like to ask – How many freedoms have you lost?

It’s not a difficult question. The lack of the libertarians ability to answer the question does leave some questions. I have talked to countless libertarians who are completely angry at our country over offenses that have not occured. I like how Bill Maher put it, “people who think that the freedoms in this country are going away should be forced to watch the new Jackass movie.” That is the absolute truth. What exactly is the contention?

The only real loss of freedom that has happened in this country in a very long time was when The Patriot Act came into play. Now that was when freedom was actually being hindered. Of course, a very large part of the libertarian party was very silent. Of course, there was Ron and Rand Paul who were vocally against it. Of all the people who claim to be Libertarian, those two actually seem to stand by their message, although, like almost every single other libertarian, they seem to get a crucial definition of a concept that they claim to be against dead wrong.

Let’s clear up a critical misconception right now- the Founding Fathers were not against socialism. In fact, they were very much in favor of it, but only for crucial functions. Of course, like so many things that people who claim that the Constitution is completely correct about everything simply because something is in there, there were not a lot of crucial functions for government to serve, mostly because the technological and scientific knowledge wasn’t there. We didn’t have a police force like we do today. There was no fire department back in those days even remotely resembling the modern capacity. We didn’t have medical help the way we do now. These things just didn’t exist. But the Founding Fathers were against public ownership of crucial services.

And that is another thing- socialism does not mean the government owns everything! Socialism actually means quite the opposite. It means that there is a collective public ownership of a service of business. It means that the power is being taken away from the government and being given to the people. This is critical to understand because groups like Fox News and conservative and libertarian groups continually and mercilessly misrepresent things. The fact is that true socialism takes power away from the government, rather than giving it to them, as the common belief is on the Fox Network. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with a system, but if you are going to have a case to present, at least have your facts straight.

However, it does take away from the capitalist market. However, this is another ugly misrepresentation. The idea that the free market can take care of itself is a gross overstatement of things that have been proven by intellectual and economists to be false. The free market taking care of itself has never been true. If it had been, then there would never have been a recession during Reagan’s (the false conservative prophet of foolishness) time in the 80’s, and there certainly wouldn’t have been one as there is now. The “trickle-down” model has NEVER worked, not once. The Milton Friedman model has never worked.

The fact is that the only proven method of economic growth is a very precise mix of capitalism and socialism. It is not an exact science, and it must be rigorously maintained. That is the only way that it works. And it is with that in mind that the statement can be made that free market capitalism is a farce.

Now, onto another topic. Ron Paul recently said that it should be perfectly alright for a business to be able to tell a group of people that they are no allowed to shop there. He is basically in favor of segregation. His reasoning is because it is enfringing on the freedom of a business. That may be true, but in what way? They are not free to tell people that they don’t have a right to shop with them? That’s interesting, because isn’t it infringing on the rights of people who are shopping by telling them that they can’t shop at your store? Aren’t you getting in the way of capitalism by telling a group of peopel that they are not allowed to do business at your institution? You are taking away from a person’s rights, and therefore, Ron Paul, your argument is taking away people’s liberties. Interesting, isn’t it?

The fact is that the libertarian position is more childish than anything. They don’t want to be taxed, they don’t want to be told no. They tend to throw tantrums when people tell them what to do, because in so many of their minds’, it is wrong for anybody in power to tell them to do anything.

The Founding Fathers were against the government having too much power. But they found this really cool away around that. It is called “checks and balances.” All three of the major areas of government have power over one-another, and therefore, the government is kept in check, or at least, it was supposed to be. The fact is that the bulk of the libertarian movement came to focus during President Obama’s time. Back when Bush was stripping away people’s right to privacy and their 4th Amendment rights, they were remarkably silent. These people are not left or right of anything but helpful, and rather than try and fix the system, the choose to stand apart from it. A lot of people would probably be on their side, were it not for the fact that they ignore the basic principles of different terms, and ignore evidence given by intelligent people about topics that are over their heads.

Government is made by people listening to the smart, not ignoring and saying no.

America has this problem. It is plagued by this problem in every way. Whenever the intelligent try and alleviate this problem, it seems to bounce back. The problem is a curse upon a country that is desperately trying to overcome the racist elements that are still very powerful in this country. Granted, they are not nearly as bad as it used to be. The KKK is not as powerful a presence in this country the way that they used to be, which is a wonderful thing. You don’t see them walking down the streets of Washington DC in their robes, talking their talk, which won’t be repeated here because some of us consider ourselves decent human beings who don’t want to revisit a history that is bigoted, heartless, and worth nothing to society. What is America’s problem? America’s problem is the Tea Party.

It is kind of inspiring how the Tea Party is finally starting to head into the night. Granted, we now have quite a few Tea Party Republicans (such an oxy-moron, given what people say that the Tea Party is supposed to represent) in government these days. You’ve got people like Mitt Romney, Rand and Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and the list does go on. But you don’t see much of their massive protests these days. Their protests are absolutely legendary in the world of bigoted politics.

Does anybody remember the signs that these people used to have at their completely not-racist rallies that they had? The stupidity and ignorance of what was happening was almost inspiring to those of us who have the ability to think in large amounts. They were openly comparing the democratically elected president of this country to being equal with Hitler. That’s right, people in this country were saying that the President of the United States who was democratically elected is equal to a genocidal maniac who wanted to ethically and ideologically purify the world. The absolutely offensive nature of that comparison should terrify and sadden people, but it didn’t.

But then, after the big charge that they had going died down, the Tea Party decided to go after the people who called them racists. One must give credit that the Tea Party didn’t start out as the racist mongers that they are today. There were some actual intellectuals with this group back when it first started. However, this is not the way that it is today. Today, the Tea Party has become nothing more than a group of middle-class, almost exclusively white people. These white people claim to be mad about the economy, taxes, a whole bunch of things, but the truth is that the only thing that they are really mad at is the fact that the black man is in office.

One contention that the big-time Tea Party members make is that they are in support of the ideals set up by the Founding Fathers of this country. That concept is so stupid that it hurts. If the Founding Fathers were around today they would have undoubtably hated the Tea Party’s guts. For one thing, they want to believe that the Founding Fathers were against socialism, which is an outright lie. They were all in favor of it, because you know what socialism was? It wasn’t the government having all the power. That is a lie that the people are told. Socialism is, by definition, public ownership. The people own, the people control. Socialism is giving the people of a country the control over the main areas of production. It is not taking from people, it is giving to people. But that isn’t something that the corporate machine of this country, like the Koch brothers, want you to know.

The fact is that the Tea Party is not a machine that is acting in the people’s interest. They are an arm of the corporate machine. They have always advocated and will always advocate for the corporate interests, and in the interest of capitalism, which has been proven to be against the common good. If only the Tea Party was a machine of dissent. What’s ironic is that while they believe themselves to be dissenting against the system, if you go against them, and call them out, they will go after you with absolute fury.

There was a video that was made by a YouTuber named Grady Warren. In it, Warren talks about how the Tea Party is not racist. It was the absolutely worst demonstration of something that more and more people are coming to realize is true- that either these people are so completely blind to their own bigotry that they simply don’t see it, or that they are so egotistical and proud of their own bigotry that they revel in it. This is not a good thing. This is actually a very terrible thing. Either of those problems comes with a massively long list of things that need to be done to get these people to understand how bigoted they actually are.

And what’s more, the American public has to suffer the worst of it- the legislation that they want to put through. The recent campaign against reproductive rights for women was a Tea Party and hardcore right manifestation. Christine O’Donnell ran on her wish to take away a woman’s right to choose. Sharron Angle did too. Granted, their campaigns lost, but it is the idea of the thing that matters. And it has paved the way for all sorts of hardcore right legislation that could have, and in some places, has come to pass. There was a House Bill in South Dakota that could have made it perfectly legel to kill an abortion doctor. You could up and kill them, in the street, and you would face no legal action. That isn’t happening in this country! And people who think that that kind of behavior is acceptable should be shunned and mocked by society. But, thanks to the miracle of the hopelssly biased network FOX News, they are accepted.

Society cannot suffer the kind of bigotry that we face. There are things happening that demand that humanity come together. America needs to solve its tea problem. Either that, or find a place to send them where they can live in their little utopia, up until the point where they realize that the world that they want is a place where nobody would want to live.